 Print Article
|
According to his staff, he drives a Mercedes-Benz which is more than 20 years old.
Sometimes, he would even take a bus to get to his stall in Ang Mo Kio.
But Looi San Cheng is no small-time stall owner.
Each day, his curry puff stall, which sits at the corner of a grimy Ang Mo Kio coffee shop, sells up to 5,000 curry puffs at $1 each.
The stall has been operating there since 1979.
His puffs can be found even in China where his son, Mr Looi Chong Wee, has expanded the business.
On Friday, the elder Looi, who was mentioned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech last year for his entrepreneurship, was jailed for two weeks for tax evasion.
Although he has been consistently collecting more than $100,000 in annual net profit from his curry puff stall for the past six years, he had always under-declared his earnings and, on some years, stated that his stall had made a loss.
Looi was also ordered by the court to pay a penalty of $196,000 - three times the amount of taxes he dodged in 2005 and last year.
Businessman Toh Chin Huat, 40, who was at the stall on Friday, said: 'Looking at the way they sell, they are surely making money - one just does not know how much.'
Another customer, sales manager Edwin Teng, 36, said: 'The business has been good here from as far back as 15 years ago. He cannot be losing money and the price of the curry puff has been going up.'
When The Sunday Times visited the Ang Mo Kio stall over the past two days, there was a steady stream of people and at least 10 people in the queue at any one time.
Customers came from as far as Sengkang and Yishun to buy between two and 25 curry puffs each.
However, Makansutra food reviewer K.F. Seetoh thinks Tip Top curry puffs are nothing special, but just visually appealing.
'A lot of it has to do with impulse buying. When you walk past the stall, you'll see the staff peeling potatoes and kneading the dough. It just makes you want to buy 10 pieces,' he said.
A Makansutra review pasted beside the shop gave its puffs a four-chopstick rating out of a maximum of six.
Previous food reviews by newspapers have found the curry mixture to be too sweet and lacking kick.
But even now with Looi in jail, business continues as normal.
Said a stall assistant: 'The staff are not affected by this. It's as though the boss has gone on a two-week holiday.'
